Lightering vessel.



A. SMITH.

LIGHTERING VESSEL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23, 1912.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Patented Mar. 17, 1914,

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS A. SMITH.

LIGHTERING VESSEL.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2a, 1912.

Patented Mar. 17, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

INVENTOR A 4770mm A. SMITH.

LIGHTBRING VESSEL. APPLICATION FILED 111111.23, 1912.

Patented Mar. 17, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

WITNESSES: IIVVENTOR A1, ATTOR/VE Ys COLUMBIA PLANDGHAPH co..WASHINGTON. n4 0.

v A. SMITH.

LIGHTBRING VESSEL. APPLIGAHON FILED mums, 1912.

Patented Mar. 17, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEBT 4.

nan/5mm lbw/A COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO.,WASHINGTON. D.

@FiQE.

LIGHTERING VESSEL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 1'2, 19ft.

Application filed March 23, 1912. Serial No. 685,817.

To all whom it maypmcem Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS SMITH, citizen ofthe United States of America, residing in the city of Bayonne, in thecounty of Hudson and State of New Jersey, have invented a certain newand useful Improvement in Lightering Vessels, of which the following isa specification.

Lightering vessels have heretofore been constructed for the handling anddischarging of coal and other granular material, some being equippedwith endless conveyers and elevators, and others with grab buckets, forexample.

Still other vessels have carried their cargoes in separate containersand have had means for lifting and dumping said containers successivelyto discharge the cargo.

Endless conveyers and elevators involve complicated and expensive meansfor weighing and measuring the cargo as it is discharged, and moreover,such conveyors and elevators usually require a heavy superstructureabove the vessels deck, and that is a serious obstacle to the navigationof the dis charging vessel.

Grab buckets do not themselves measure their loads accurately, requiringthe use of a secondary measuring device for registering the amountdischarged. They are also dirty and dusty in operation and are attendedwith no little risk of damage by the swinging and striking of thebucket.

Separate containers involve delay at the loading point where thecontainers are filled, and they limit the cargo by reason of thedifficulty of storing the containers in such a way that they can belifted out conveniently to discharge the cargo. They also limit thecargo by the tare weight of the containers themselves.

My invention is designed to overcome these objections, and I accomplishthe purpose by constructing a vessel to carry its cargo in a bunker,which can be readily filled at the loading point and which is arrangedto discharge its cargo by gravity through gates near the bottom of thebunker into tubs or boxes below, and so arranged in relation to thegates as to automatically measure the material accurately, and which canthen be hoisted by a suitable means carried by the vessel and dumped atthe point where the cargo is to be discharged.

My type of vessel may or may not be equipped with its own propellingmachinery horizontal sliding gates 3.

though in the accompanying illustrations 1 have shown it so equipped.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section througha vessel. constructed in accordance with my invent on; Fig. 2 is atransverse section on the line 2-2, Fig. 1, but drawn to a larger scale;Fig. 3 is a "detached plan view of gate-openmg means; Fig. 4c is a view,drawn to a larger scale, of a detail of the gateopening means; Fig. 5 isa sectional plan" view, showing the tracks and cars under the bunker;Fig. 6 is a longitudinal side elevation of another construction ofvessel embodying my invention; Fig. 7 is a transverse section on theline 77, Fig. 6; Fig. 8'

is a longitudinal side elevation of another modification; Fig. 9 is atransverse section on the line 9-9, Fig. 8.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 5, A is a floating vessel shown in the form of aself-propelled coal or grain lighter, in which the propelling engines Eand boiler B are indicated in outline near the stern of the vessel.

The cargo bunker 1 is shown amidships fitted at the top with hatches 2to protect the cargo from the weather. The bottom of the bunker slopesfrom each side toward the center, where are provided two longitudinalseries of outlet openings closed by On the bottom or hull of the vessel,and immediately under these two rows of discharge gates are tracks 6(Figs. 2 and 5) meeting in a single track under an elevator or shaft 7,toward the bow of the vessel, Fig. 1. On these tracks 6 run cars 4:,each of which carries say three tubs or cans 5 or equivalent vessels,into which the coal can be drawn from the bunker through the openedgates, and which tubs in turn can be hoisted out through the shaft 7.

I prefer to provide two cars 4, one for each track, and each car isprovided with a suitable seat 4 on the side, Fig. 2, to permit a man toride thereon. Each car is connected to a small reversible winding engine8, by an endless rope 8 Fig.5, and any suitable means are providedwhereby the man riding on the car can control the throttle and reversingmechanism of his engine 8, connected to his car, so as to cause the carto travel in one direction or the other and stop and start at will.

Any desired one of each series of gates or slides 3 at the bottom of thebunker 1 may be opened or closed under the control of the man on the carby suitable means. In Fig. 3, I have shown for each row of gates a steamram 9, controlled by a reversing throttle valve 10, which may beoperated by a rock shaft 11 extending alongside the passage way in whichthe car 4 travels, so that the man on the car may easily reach the rockshaft and turn it to work the valve from his seat on the car. There are,of course, two of these rams, one for each set of gates. To the pistonof each ram is connected a steel frame 9 carrying pivoted latches 29,Figs. 3 and 4, one for each gate 3, and so arranged that the man cancause any latch to engage the particular gate 3, which it controls. Forthe sake of simplicity and because of the necessary smallness of scale,I have not shown this frame 9 in Fig. 1.

When the steam ram 9 is brought into play to push or pull the slidingframe 9 any gate or slide latched to it will be opened or closed, as thecase may be. The tub car man having brought his car fairly under any ofthe selected gates, as shown for example by dotted lines at the left ofFig. 1, he thereupon engages the slides of those gates with the frame 9-by means of their respective latches and turns steam on to the ramwhich forthwith pushes the frame 9 carrying the particular slideslatched to it, thus opening the selected gates and allowing part of thecargo to fall into the tubs carried by the car. The position anddimension of the tub are so taken in relation to the gate that thematerial will not overflow like water, but when the tub is filled'to aprescribed height, depending on the angle of repose or internal frictionof the material of the cargo, the flow will stop. The

car man then reverses the steam ram 9,

which closes the gates 3, cutting through the column of materialextending down from the bunker into the bottom of the tub withoutspilling, and so measures with substantial accuracy the quantity takenin each tub. The tubs or cans are all made the same size, and'the volumecarried by the tubs can be converted into weight by weighing a few ofthe tubs taken as samples. The man on the car having closed the gates,now, operates the winding engine connected to his car as abovedescribed, by means of a connection from the throttle convenient to hishand, as for instance by a wooden push rod '14. By this means the carman can cause the car with its loaded tubs to move forward to the well 7under the hoisting mechanism. Arriving at the hoist, the tubs aresuccessively hooked to a fall 15 which is shown 7 in Fig. 1 as droppingfrom a single rope Morris dumper D, (such as described more fully underPatent No. 699,806), on the mast20 and running thence to a hoistingengine 17. The'tubs are thus successively hoisted and dumped into achute 18 which is shown in Fig. 1 as connected to a swinging telescopicdelivery chute 19 to deliver the cargo finally to any point within itsreach. In this vessel the whole dumper may be adjusted vertically to anydesired position on the mast 20, to discharge at the required point.

In the modified construction of discharging vessel shown in Figs. 6 and7, there is a single track 6 along the middle of the vessel under a rowof gates 3 under the bunker, and the hoist well 7 is shown as placedabout midway of the length of the bunker or cargo space. The two steamrams to actuate the gates will in this case be at opposite ends of thecargo space, one to control the gates forward of the hoist well 7 andthe other to control the gates aft of the well 7 To avoid confusion andowing to the reduced scales to which these views are drawn,representation of the rams and frames is omitted, their construction andoperation be ing substantially as described with reference to F igsL 3and '4. The modified arrangement here described, like that of Figs. '1to 4, permit one car to have its tubs un-.

loaded at the hoist well 7 while the other.

car is being loaded from the bunker. In this modification, Figs. 6 and7, the Morris dumpor D is shown at the bottom of the mast or A-frame Farranged'to dump into a skip bucket 23, which can be made to travel upand down a track way in the form of a boom 24. On this boom will bemounted a. delivery chute 25 with enlarged upper end, and into which theskip bucket can be dumped. This delivery chute can be ad 105. length ofthe boom 24 to permit the cargo to justed to any desired position alongthe be discharged at any point within the limits of its travel.

In Figs; 1 and 6, a single rope Morris'- dumper has been shown, but itwill be understood that a double rope Morris dumper, such as describedin Patent No. 665,574 may be used, or any other suitable dumping-ordischarging means available in its place.

Thus in the modification shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the Morris dumper isdispensed with. Instead, each filled tub 5 is in this case hoisted by avertical fallrope 26 and when the tub has been hoisted clear of theshaft 37, it is swung clear outboard by another fall 27 attached to thehoisting hook and" running over a pulley 27 carried-by a boom. 28 1n themanner well known.

The tubs can be emptied either by capsizingthem orx' by opening flapdoorsin the bottom;

Other modifications canbe made in the apparatus without departing frommy invention, important features of which-are the construction of thevessel to carry a'cargo I of granular material ina bunker above thebottom of the vessel, the bunker being provided with gates through whichthe cargo can be discharged by gravity into tubs or the like, which areso arranged in relation to the gates as to automatically measure thematerial with substantial accuracy, without spilling, and which can beafterward hoisted and then dumped at the point where cargo is to bedelivered.

I claim as my invention,

1. A lightering vessel, having a bunker for granular cargo, slidingdischarge gates in the bottom of the bunker, traveling cars withremovable tubs under the bunker to receive the cargo from the bunkerthrough open gates, the tubs being of such size and relation to thegates that the flow will cease when a certain quantity has entered thetub, means for closing the gates so that the tubs can then be withdrawn,and means for hoisting the tubs oi? the cars when moved from below thebunker, substantially as described.

2. A lightering vessel, having a bunker I for granular cargo, slidingdischarge gates in the bunker, traveling cars with removable tubs underthe bunker to receive the cargo from the bunker, power means to open thegates under control of the operator and power means on the vessel forhoisting the tubs from below the bunker, substantially as described.

3. A lightering vessel, having a bunker for granular cargo, slidingdischarge gates in the bunker, traveling cars with removable tubs underthe bunker to receive the cargo from the bunker through opened gates,power means to open the gates, a vertical hoisting well, and power meanson the vessel for hoisting the tubs oft the cars, when moved from belowthe bunker, through the well and for discharging their contents,substantially as described.

4. A bunker provided with a series of sliding discharge gates incombination with a horizontally slidable frame, a motive power means toreciprocate the sliding frame, and means to connect any of the gateswith said sliding frame to operate the selected gates.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

AUGUSTUS SMITH. Witnesses G. W. MARTLING, HUBERT HOWSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

